Perfect for this week, "April Fool," is the middle chapter of this three-chapter beginning reader. It's the story of big sister Zelda's exhaustive attempts to get Ivy back after her that her little sister tells her ears have turned purple.

Zelda's clever tricks - confetti in the umbrella, cucumber slices in the PB&J - go humorously wrong, partly because of bad luck and partly because Ivy's no dummy.

In the third Zelda and Ivy book, Zelda and Ivy and the Boy Next Door, Kvasnosky added a new character, Eugene, a kindred spirit to pensive Ivy and a second player for the commanding Zelda to use in her grand schemes.

The other two chapters in Keeping Secrets involve Eugene. In one, Zelda tells him and Ivy she knows who the tooth fairy is, but warns each not to tell the other. In the last hilarious chapter, there's a butterfly, an opera and a fox sister caught in a net.

The first Zelda and Ivy books were originally published in larger picture book versions. But someone at Candlewick made the brilliant decision to switch them into the compact "I can read" format. They're perfect like this.

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Welcome to Young Books

Rebecca Young has been reviewing children's books for more than 20 years.

Her reviews have appeared in publications from coast-to-coast, including The Phoenix Gazette, Spokesman-Review, The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., The Chicago Sun-Times, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Sacramento Bee and The Kansas City Star.

Rebecca also works as a school librarian at Seabury School, reading, recommending, discussing and de-griming books every week.

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